


a tuesday

by tnevmucric



Series: the one you love [1]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27219118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tnevmucric/pseuds/tnevmucric
Summary: “this rental car is a time machine.”there’s a long silence as goro contemplates the contents of the dashboard; cubed melon in a plastic container, a wrapper for some nondescript shrimp crackers, a parking ticket that reads ‘first 2 hours free’ and a less than half-smoked cigarette jammed in the corner.“this is only moderately more sanitary than a hot tub,” goro replies.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro & Persona 5 Protagonist, Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: the one you love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987204
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	a tuesday

“This rental car is a time machine.”

There’s a long silence as Goro contemplates the contents of the dashboard; cubed melon in a plastic container, a wrapper for some nondescript shrimp crackers, a parking ticket that reads ‘first 2 hours free’ and a less than half-smoked cigarette jammed in the corner.

“This is only moderately more sanitary than a hot tub,” Goro replies.

What Goro should have then followed with was: _I’m sick. I’m not going to entertain another one of your random, impulsive ideas._

It remains a fact that Goro Amamiya is a weak, weak man.

* * *

If you asked Ren where his drivers licence was, he couldn’t tell you. Luckily for him, Goro made sure every morning that it was in his wallet instead of being used as a bookmark in a book that Ren would equally not be able to remember enough about to drive a conversation with. I bring up his driving because for all intents and purposes, Ren is a very steady driver. He’s confident but not to the point of recklessness and shows an admirable kindness to ducks in the middle of the road.

If you asked Goro if Ren had always been this way, Goro would tell you the story of Ren Amamiya’s 13 failed driver’s tests and how eventually, not through resilience but by sheer universal intervention, Ren passed and gained his license.

Though he is a steady driver with a deluge of mints in the side-door whenever possible, he is a fidgety driver. He can never sit quietly, always having to hum along with the radio or when the radio is boring, hum along to silence. Goro’s even heard him repeat back the weather and traffic reports between songs—which isn’t exactly unusual for Ren since he practically wakes up with a note in his throat, but Goro would prefer the designated driver to be less distracted.

But Goro just watches him. He thinks fondly of Ren whistling in the library, remembering he shouldn’t be whistling in the library, and then going back to whistling exactly two minutes later. Goro props his elbow on the rolled-down window, watching the way the wind whips at Ren’s hair. His fingers are doing that _tap-tap-tap_ thing against the steering wheel, the noise dulled by his wedding ring. Goro likes that noise.

“Hey”, Goro says, because he can and because he wants to. “I love you.”

Ren’s smile is brilliant. It’s a smile that changes his whole face and reveals all of the laughter lines and wrinkles and dimples that are otherwise hidden.

“I love you too.”

* * *

“I always thought the power to reverse time would be way more useful than time-travel itself.”

Goro blinks sleepily, the taste of cold medicine still strong on his tongue. The car smells like a weird mixture of VapoRub, sandalwood and Ren’s light cologne, and he turns on his side slightly, resigning his ears to whatever thought process Ren has decided to wake him for.

“Aren’t they the same?” Ren shakes his head sagely

“Time travel is pick and choose; Caesar’s assassination or the The Great Emu War? Elvis’ first concert or David Bowie’s last? Rewinding time is living out your whole life with the power to restart whole sections of it.”

Goro pauses.

“Did you just thread relevance between Caesar’s assassination and The Great Emu War?”

Ren takes his eyes off of the road to give Goro a very serious look.

“They are equally vital points on the great timeline of history.” Goro pushes his cheek back to face the road and wriggles in his seat, trying to get comfortable.

“I shouldn’t have let you put that cake-flavoured creamer in your coffee this morning. Where are we even going? We’ve been driving for hours.”

“I told you, we’re going back in time. I’m going to drive at such an acceptable speed that the world won’t be able to help itself in spinning backwards, ala Superman.”

“You’re so full of shit.”

Goro then sneezes.

* * *

Goro slid his sunglasses from his hair onto his nose and cleared his throat, settling back into his seat and giving a low hum. “Okay”, he said, “okay, time-travel. Chewing on mint leaves in my grandmothers garden and accidentally finding a crushed ladybug on my tongue because I wasn’t paying attention.”

Ren, briefly, appears horrified.

“I did drama class in middle-school”, Goro continues, “I always remember this warm up exercise where my teacher would turn the stage lights down to these cool blue and lilac colours and he’d sort of guide us. I used to think it was silly, but I miss it now.”

“Time-travel”, Ren says, “Forgetting I had jam bread in my bag and getting home after school to find it half squished under my math book.”

“Time-travel: using a full canister of hairspray every couple of days for a solid six years.”

“Time-travel: you teaching me what an onomatopoeia was while we shared a Yowie. Ooh, double time-travel: Yowie’s.”

“Time-travel: Futaba attempting to shovel-talk me.” Ren laughs loudly, eyes bright behind his own sunglasses.

“That was a nice day, wasn’t it? Time-travel: seeing you for the first time.”

Goro feels a very necessary needle of warmth prod him in the chest.

“Time-travel”, he repeats. “Seeing you for the first time.”

* * *

The first time Goro saw Ren Amamiya was as a hazy glimpse through a steamed-up window. It was cold outside and Makoto had recommended her girlfriend’s café—a hidden gem, she had called it.

Through the window he watched Ren Amamiya drop a whole latte on himself.

Needless to say, Goro was a goner.

* * *

Goro can admit that his relationship with Ren has had some unexpected developments. Bugs, for example. Goro used to hate bugs. It was a literal loathing feeling he got mixed with intense fear when he was faced with a bug and had no means of escape despite being a good 6 feet taller than most tiny creatures. And then Ren had to go and show him his bee-keeping hobby ( _“Hobby?”_ Goro can remember relaying to Haru heatedly over the phone. _“Bee-keeping is a fucking_ hobby? _”_ ).

So Goro has a mutually respectful relationship with bugs of all kind. Mutually respectful meaning he does try to avoid stepping on ants while he’s walking like Ren asked him to, and he does carry a few sugar packets on him in case he sees any bees or butterflies who need some sugar water. In turn, he expects they probably won’t stab or poison him.

A bug bumps into his hand now, the same way they do while you’re walking, swaying those arms, and it feels like a heavy feather against your knuckles for a short moment before you hear a telltale buzz pass by your ear as if to say _excuse me._ He pulls his arm back in from where it’d been hanging out the window and finds a hint of pollen on his hand, choosing to discreetly wipe it on his jeans. Beside him, Ren is digging out a short tube from the console and uncapping it with one hand. This is the drag of his lip as he applies his Burt’s Bees Vanilla Bean Moisturizing Lip Balm. As Goro understands it, it is 100% natural, 4.25 grams and cruelty free. Thank you, Ren Amamiya: well of knowledge.

“What are you thinking?” Ren asks. Goro pokes his face to look at the road again.

(Goro had been thinking that vanilla would always be his favourite smell.)

* * *

“I’m begging you.”

“No.” Goro shakes the packet a little, dislodging the chocolates stuck at the corner of the plastic. “I gave you all of the greens and yellows; you should have thought more about which ones you wanted before you asked to have some of _my_ MnMs.”

“Just one and I won’t ever ask you again.”

Goro considers the remaining blue MnMs.

“Still no. Do you think maybe I just have hay-fever?”

* * *

_“It’s only natural”,_ Ren croons, disastrously off-key. _“That you should feel the same way too.”_

Goro digs through his toiletry bag, attempting to find the menthol inhaler for his sinuses.

“I want you to know I feel completely at ease. Read me like a book, that’s fallen down between your knees, please—let me have my way with you.”

Goro yelps as he inhales an undue amount of eucalyptus. Ren cackles.

* * *

“We’re at the beach.”

“Yes.” Ren reaches into the boot to bring a cooler forward. “Great work, Watson.”

“Why couldn’t you have just told me we were going to the beach?”

Ren fiddles with the handle of the cooler for a moment before squinting at Goro. He seems shy, almost embarrassed.

“We had our third date at a beach. I thought it’d be nice to come back to that—I always remember how much fun it was.”

“I think all I did was sunbathe and listen to you talk.”

Goro backtracks. He did have a lot of fun. He shakes his head and continues.

“Anyway, why our third date? Why not our first?”

“We fucked in my old apartment on our first date. It’s not really road trip material.”

“You counted that as a date?”

“You didn’t? Help me with the cooler, I filled it with all of your stupid aloe drinks and now it weighs a hundred tonnes.”

* * *

Goro sunbathes and Ren lies beside him, poking their feet together and blowing air on Goro’s face every time he’s about to fall asleep. Goro stopped wondering a long time ago how Ren seemed to have an aptitude for this particular skill.

“Time-travel”, Ren whispered over the soft brush of the waves. “Laying beside you for the first time.”

Goro reaches out and taps Ren’s nose once.

“You’re not wearing sunscreen. I told you to put some on.”

“You can put some on me later. C’mon, time-travel.” Ren nudges their feet again and Goro sighs, leaning his head further back into Ren’s jacket, now a makeshift pillow.

“Time-travel”, Goro says. He can’t quite find the words right now, so he hopes Ren can feel them. It’s that sound in the waves, the two of them travelling so far for so little but also for so much. It’s in the way they are when it’s just the two of them alone, as still as they can be, time not stopping at all. “Time-travel”, Goro says, and he doesn’t mean yesterday, he means tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading!
> 
> — tnevmucric.carrd.co


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